


A Better Future

by Ste3o (stefy_coool)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, End!verse, Episode: s05e04 The End, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-15
Updated: 2014-01-15
Packaged: 2018-01-08 19:22:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1136433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stefy_coool/pseuds/Ste3o
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>End!verse where Dean gets stuck in the future for a little longer than originally planned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Better Future

**Author's Note:**

> Gift for the DeanCas christmas gifts exchange. It's a little angsty, I'm sorry... You had an End!verse prompt so I couldn't resist. I hope you'll like it anyway.

It was suppose to be three days. That’s what Zachariah told him… four days ago. Dean was still stuck in that croatoan apocalyptic messed up future. 

It had been a day since he saw his older self get kill by Lucifer. And Sam… How could their future have turned out this way. He was definitely not letting it happen once he would get back to his time. If he ever got back, that is…

After the fight, future!Dean’s death and Zachariah’s no show, Dean went back to camp Chitaqua, hoping to at least find some survivors of the raid… at least find Cas… God he hoped Cas was still alive. He was so pissed at his future self for that, sending his friend on a suicide mission like that, sending Cas! How could he ever be broken enough to send Cas to his death! Just the thought of it all made his breath hitch and chock. Dean took a deep breath, trying to calm down. It had been a day, and he was the only one who came back so far.

He waited. He waited hours at the entry of the camp, looking through the trees, hoping to see the familiar silhouette walking toward the camp. He didn’t slept for almost three days and when he finally did get some shut eyes, he locked himself alone in Cas’s cabin.

After almost two weeks with still no sight of Cas or Zakariah or anyone else from the raid, Dean had given up. He had finished accepting he would be stuck in this future without Cas or his brother. He had adopted his future self’s old cabin but still spent most nights in Cas’s, refusing anyone else touched it. His eating habits got back to normal and he was sleeping his minimum four hours again. Chuck showed him a little of what his future self used to do so he would pick it up, but Dean kept refusing to lead the camp whatsoever. He did help around as he could though, going on supplies run with the others and defending the camp against rogue croats. 

It had been a month now, and Dean had enough. If he was going to be stuck in that time, he wasn’t staying alone. If Zachariah wouldn’t show up, than he would at least go find Cas. In the last month, he had been able to gain more information about how this world worked, how demons ran it and where the croatoan virus was spread. He had enough information to survive on his own for a while outside the camp.

He packed early that morning and left the camp at sunrise, is only goal, to find Cas. Among the information he gathered, he found out some demons were keeping some survivors from the raid to Lucifer to interrogate them. Dean thought he would start there, if Cas wasn’t there, he would at least help free those innocent people.

It took him three days to get there, luckily avoiding most of the hot zone, and ended up fighting croats only once, where he skillfully ran away after shooting two down. The demon camp was heavily guarded by more croats and demons, Dean had to kill a few on his way inside but made it in without alerting everyone. He found the room where they supposedly kept the hostages, but there was only one person tied up on a chair with a bag on its head. Dean swallowed and stepped closer, slowly and quietly. He grabbed the bag and pulled it off, revealing Cas’s beaten and bloody head. The fallen angel was unconscious and for all Dean knew, possibly even dead.

Dean felt his heart skip a beat and he forgot to breathe. On a moment of panic, he grabbed Cas’s shoulders and shook him. "Cas.... Cas.... Cas!" He tried not to scream, his voice hitching and breaking. After taking a deep breath to try and calm down, he tried thinking with his brain and started looking for Cas’s pulse and see if he was breathing. "Fuck Cas.... Please be alive..." He muttered out, finally calming down enough to feel Cas’s weak breath on his palm, and he sighed in relief.

After he untied him, Dean tried to wake him up again. "Cas, wake up..." He said softly, shaking him again. He pulled out his flask of water and spread a few drops in Cas’s face till the fallen angel finally stirred and moaned, slowly waking up.

\---

Cas opened a blurry eye, his face swollen and hurting. 

In the last month, he had the pleasure, as Lucifer put it, to experience the meaning of being tortured as a human. Cas wasn’t even sure how long he had been kept here anymore. Sometimes he remembers, the battle, the croats and the demons he shot like they were flies, and his friends falling dead around him, till he was the last one standing, till Lucifer stood before him. And he knew, he knew Lucifer standing in front of him only meant they had lost, it only meant Dean had failed. 

He refused to believe it at first. Lucifer had him locked down, tied up and tortured like his own personal punching bag. He told Cas about Dean’s death, over and over, trying to break him apart on the inside as much as he was carving his outside. But Cas still refused to believe it. He even tried to escape a few times, only to be back in the same chair again later. Some faint hope kept him believing Dean was still alive somewhere. He couldn’t be dead, he had probably ran away, escaped from Lucifer, the demons and the croats. He was rebuilding an army, getting ready, to attack again, to come kill Lucifer… and maybe… maybe to come save him…

It took him a while to realise it was Dean standing in front of him now, but when he finally saw him looking back, the small glimpse of hope made him smile. Till he realised that wasn’t really Dean… not his Dean anyway. This one was different. It made him chuckle. Lucifer had gone as low in his torture as to pretend to be Dean, coming to rescue him like he’s some kind of damsel in distress or something? He shook his head and looked away. What if he was really dead… This was all that was left of him, the mere image stolen by his brother…

“Cas!” Dean almost shout, grabbing Cas’s face and making him look at him. “It’s me. I’m from the past, remember, Zachariah threw me here…” He said, his voice breaking. 

Cas frowned, the memory slowly coming back to him. This really was Dean, a much younger, unbroken, version of Dean, but Dean none the less. And he came for him… Why did he came for him? Cas felt his breathing stop. This wasn’t his Dean, not now Dean… Why? Where was he?

Dean carefully pulled him up to his feet, an arm wrapped around Cas’s waist to help him up. But Cas protested, struggling against Dean and pushing him away. “W-Why? W-Where… Where is he?” Cas mumbled out, a look of panic taking him over as he looked around the room. Maybe he was somewhere around here too. Maybe he didn’t thought Cas needed help and he stayed at the camp… Maybe he just didn’t care… 

For once, Cas hoped that was the case.

Dean was telling him to calm down, gripping his shoulder to hold him still. Cas took a deep breath, finally coming back to his senses. They needed to get out of there before demons started showing up.

\--

Dean managed to bring Cas back to the camp, both surprisingly safe and sound. Cas had most of his wounds patched up along the way. It took them about as long as it took Dean the first time. They drove in silence as every time Dean tried to make conversation, Cas would just ignore him, looking out the window with sad eyes. Neither of them mentioned the other Dean, Cas in fear of the truth he was desperately trying to burry as deep as possible in the back of his mind, and Dean not knowing the right way to bring it up. 

They arrived in the camp at dusk. Dean parked the truck but they both stayed inside it, Dean looking at Cas and Cas looking through the window. Thankfully the camp was quiet and dark. 

“On the bright side, this month I spent captured made me go through withdrawal and quit drugs.” Cas chuckled. “Dean will be happy about that…”

Dean looked away and bit his bottom lip before running his tongue over it. “Cas…” He whispered softly, his voice hitching again. He didn’t want to say it, but he knew he had to now. “He… He’s dead…” He turned his head to Cas but the fallen angel kept his gaze to the other side.

“Yeah… figured…” Cas muttered under his breath before he pushed the door open and practically ran out to his cabin without a second glance back to the truck. 

“Cas, wait…” Dean got out of the car and went after him, a few steps behind. He didn’t knew what to say and there was still a lot he didn’t understood about this time, but he knew Cas and he wasn’t going to leave him alone after he just learned about his Dean’s death. He walked inside the cabin after him and stood in the doorway. 

Cas sat on the bed, looking down at his hands on his knees. “Leave me, Dean…” He said with a sigh.

Dean sighed and looked around, searching for the right thing to say. “You wanna talk about it?”

“Not really.”

The hunter nodded. “Alright.” He stood there in silence for a moment before he spoke again. “Can I just ask-”

“What’s the point of asking for my permission to talk about it if you’re going to anyway, regardless of what I responded?” Cas said, interrupting Dean, and his sight now on the hunter.

Dean swallowed, a little reminded of Cas’s old angel self. “Sorry…” He mumbled out, looking down at the floor.

“Why are you even here? I thought you were suppose to go back to your time.”

“I don’t know. Zachariah ditched me or something.” Dean shrugged.

“You should have left me there…” Cas whispered, ignoring Dean. He turned away and fished a bottle out from under his bed. 

Dean grabbed the bottle from his hand and frowned, looking at it closely. “What’s that?”

Cas smiled. “Absynth. Helps relax. Want some too?” He reached for the bottle but Dean stepped back with it and put it on the table away from Cas. 

“No. And neither should you.”

“Why not?” Cas retorqued, sounding a little offended.

“Because!” Dean threw his hands up. “What about your withdrawal? I thought you said you quit!”

Cas shrugged. “Who cares?”

“I do!” Dean blurred out before thinking. He sighed and looked away as Cas’s eyes were fixed to him.

They both stayed silent for a moment before Cas spoke. “Why? You’re not even from here.” He looked away. “You’re gonna go back to your own time eventually.” He muttered almost to himself.

Dean frowned. “Doesn’t mean I don’t care what happens to you.” He said before he shrugged and looked away again. 

Cas couldn’t help a small smile from drawing itself on his lips. “I don’t think I can remember the last time you said something nice to me…” He mumbled.

The hunter looked back at him and his expression soften too. He sat on the bed beside Cas. “I’m sorry Cas…” He whispered.

Cas looked down and snorted with a shrug. “I guess he’ll never say anything anymore.”

“Dude, he was a total jerk. I hope I won’t turn into him…” 

“I’m sure you won’t.”

“Thanks. I promise I won’t let you -your past self- turn into you.” Dean said with a smirk.

Cas laughed. “You must be pretty disappointed of how I turned out.”

“Dude, I was a jerk and I died, getting killed, by my brother, who’s now Lucifer. Your case is not the worst.”

“It’s been six years. I’ve rebelled against heaven, betrayed and killed my brothers and sisters, I got cast out, I fell, in every way, and all of that, for you. Since I lost my grace, I’ve become more and more useless, drifting into drugs and sex, and now I’ve lost the one reason I did it all, I’ve lost the one person…” He stopped, shaking his head before taking a deep breath. “But at least I’m not the worst. Yes, that’s very comforting. I feel a lot better now.”

“T-That’s not… I’m sorry…” Dean mumbled, at a lose. He turned his head to Cas. “Cas…? Are you… Do you…” He started asking, not entirely sure how or why.

Cas only shrugged as an answer, knowing what the question was about. 

Dean passed his arm in Cas’s back and wrapped his hand around his neck. He pulled the fallen angel to him and leaned closer till their lips met in a soft brushing kiss. Cas held his breath back in surprise till Dean pulled away just enough to look in his eyes, their forehead pressing gently against each others. “Dean? What are you doing? We didn’t start doing this till about three years ago…” Cas whispered on the hunter’s lips.

Dean smirked and shrugged. “I’m changing the future.” He said before leaning closer and kissing Cas again.

~THE END~


End file.
